# Cohiba + R&J cigars from a friend... fake? w/pics



## Leafs42084 (Sep 15, 2010)

Hi everyone,

Recently, I got my friend into smoking cigars with me, and he has acquired some cigars from a friend. He claims his friend knows a thing or two about cigars and claims they are real.

we all know that means absolutely nothing so ive come here for some insight.

To me, they seem like 4x Cohiba Esplendidos and 8x Romeo Y Julieta No.3's. Perhaps they are No.1's... not 100% positive.

Anyways, from my initial impression, I feel like the Romeo's are legit, and 2 of the Cohiba's may be. Im going to try and attach pictures and hope nothing goes wrong















clearly some visibly damage to the cigars for the cohiba's... a lot of damage near the foot of one of them







romeo bands look alright, but I know more about spotting things wrong with boxes than labels







romeos seem to be triple capped which is a good indicator







all the cohibas are triple capped as well. This is one that I think is legit







this is the 2 cigars I think are fake. The 1st label has some of the white squares cut on the top, but the biggest indicator is that the gold colours have bled and look blurry.

I dont know if the attachments worked. If they did not, I will continue to try and fix them. If anyone has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## Habano (Jul 5, 2010)

Indeed the band on the Cohiba's do not look legit and raise flags. Are the gold letters of Cohiba raised at all or do they feel raised when you run your fingers across them?

Also compare the first picture of the Cohiba band to the ones in the second picture. The band in the first picture does look more legit. Were all the cigars bought from the same vendor? If so, then I would suspect they are all fake no matter how legit they look.


----------



## Leafs42084 (Sep 15, 2010)

Starbuck said:


> Indeed the band on the Cohiba's do not look legit and raise flags. Are the gold letters of Cohiba raised at all or do they feel raised when you run your fingers across them?


yes, the gold lettering is raised on the 2 I feel are authentic, and even the 2 I think are fake.

I actually didnt notice the white boxes being cut off until I was taking pictures of them lol


----------



## xhris (Sep 7, 2006)

While I'm no expert, I'd say they are all fake. More than likely they are from the same source, so if one or two look fake, they are probably all fake. Without even looking at the bands they look pretty suspect (not round, varying lengths and ring gauges etc.)


----------



## Leafs42084 (Sep 15, 2010)

xhris said:


> While I'm no expert, I'd say they are all fake. More than likely they are from the same source, so if one or two look fake, they are probably all fake. Without even looking at the bands they look pretty suspect (not round, varying lengths and ring gauges etc.)


I dont know if I could say theyre all from the same source. He has a humidor and many cigars, he isnt someone that just went to cuba and brought back a few cigars

Perhaps they come off that way in the pictures, but I checked the lengths and they are all the same


----------



## bpegler (Mar 30, 2006)

The unfortunate fact is that there are far more fake Cubans than real ones. Unless you know and trust the vendor, odds are that all those sticks are fake.


----------



## Habanolover (Feb 22, 2006)

I doubt any of them are real if they are from the same "source". Those Cohibas would have never left the factory as poor looking as they are. While Cuba doesn't have the best QC they are pretty particular about the Cohiba and Trinidad lines.


----------



## Johnny Rock (Jun 25, 2010)

I've gotton some pretty "toothy" looking Cohibas, especially Siglo III's in the 5 pack boxes and some Siglo IV's in 3 pack tubos.


----------



## Cigary (Oct 19, 2007)

I smoke a ton of Cohibas and them aint real. As far as the R&J I'd say if they were bought at the same place...the propensity of them being fakes is pretty good. To ensure better pics we'd need a macro setting to see the band up close and personal.

I feel bad for those who go to links to get "real" CC's in the Caribbean...90% of these places are there for those who don't know a Cohiba from a hacksaw and they know that tourists are going to buy just about anything that looks like the "real thing"...the only places you can trust are those who have a Sterling reputation for selling the real thing...like a LCDH but even then they know they can raise prices for tourists because they have tons of discretionary income.


----------



## Stinkdyr (Jun 19, 2009)

They all look fake to me. They are too rustic looking.


----------



## TonyBrooklyn (Jan 28, 2010)

Sorry Fakes!


----------



## Mante (Dec 25, 2009)

630


----------



## Leafs42084 (Sep 15, 2010)

thanks for all the helpful replies. 

For those who said fake without expanding further, could you give more insight? Most of my knowledge on fakes is spotting things on boxes... not on bands. I would like to learn as much as possible on the matter... especially regarding bands.

Thanks!


----------

